1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a door outer handle structure of a vehicle.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-142440 filed on May 12, 2004, and Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-142441 filed on May 12, 2004, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
As a door outer handle structure of a vehicle having hinge type opening and closing front side doors and slide type opening and closing rear side doors, such a type of door handle structure is available (for example, refer to Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2004-27556), in which a front outer handle is provided at the rear portion of the front side door and a rear outer handle is provided at the front portion of the rear side door with spacing secured to the front outer handle.
In order to improve the design and appearance of the vehicle, it is preferable that the front outer handle be provided along the longitudinal direction at the rear end edge of the hinge type opening and closing front side door, and the rear outer handle is provided at the front end edge of the slide type opening and closing rear side door so as to secure alignment with the front outer handle in the longitudinal direction. In this case, since it is considered that the hinge portion for rotatably supporting the rear outer handle interferes with the door inner panel, etc., the hinge portion is disposed at the rear portion of the rear outer handle.
However, if the hinge portion of the rear outer handle is located at the rear side, it is difficult to execute especially a closing operation in the slide type opening and closing rear side door. That is, an operation for closing the rear side door using the rear outer handle disengages the latch mechanism by pulling the rear outer handle in the rearward direction, which becomes reverse of the door closing direction which is the same as the forward direction of a vehicle. In almost all the vehicles, the above-described operation is carried out after a passenger gets out of a vehicle. However, since the getting-out position of a passenger is almost fixed, it is difficult for the passenger who got out to execute an operation of turning the rear outer handle of the rear side door, which is located rearward of the getting-out position, in a state where the passenger stands at the getting-out position. Therefore, it is necessary for the passenger to move one or two steps rearward at all times, where the passenger feels dissatisfaction in that it is difficult to carry out a closing operation of the rear side door.